This disclosure relates to a medical device and more particularly to a therapeutic substance delivery device.
The medical device industry produces a wide variety of electronic and mechanical devices for treating patient medical conditions. Depending upon medical condition, medical devices can surgically implanted or connected externally to the patient receiving treatment. Clinicians use medical devices alone or in combination with therapeutic substance therapies and surgery to treat patient medical conditions. For some medical conditions, medical devices provide the best, and sometimes the only, therapy to restore an individual to a more healthful condition and a fuller life. One type of medical device is therapeutic substance delivery device.
Therapeutic substance delivery devices are also known as drug pumps and drug delivery devices. Therapeutic substance delivery devices are typically used to treat a condition that responds to a therapeutic substance delivered directly to an infusion site in the body rather than being ingested. Therapeutic substance delivery devices are used to treat conditions such as pain, spasticity, cancer, infections, gene abnormalities, and the like. Therapeutic substance delivery devices can be external to a patient with an infusion catheter inserted into the patient to deliver the therapeutic substance to an infusion site. Therapeutic substance delivery devices can also be implanted typically subcutaneously into a patient typically with a catheter that is also implanted to deliver therapeutic substance to an infusion site. Some therapeutic substance delivery devices are refillable such as the SynchroMed(copyright) Infusion System available from Medtronic, Inc. Other therapeutic substance delivery devices are intended as single-use devices.
Single-use therapeutic substance delivery devices are typically used in therapies where it is desirable to use a small device, an inexpensive device, or both. Single-use devices are typically configured with a preset infusion rate such as an osmotic pump available from DURECT Corp. as shown in their brochure titled xe2x80x9cALZETS(copyright) Osmotic Pumps, A General Description.xe2x80x9d Other single-use therapeutic substance delivery devices use the collapsing reservoir alone to control the device infusion rate such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,588 xe2x80x9cParenteral Fluid Medication Reservoir Pumpxe2x80x9d by Bettinger (Nov. 29, 1994).
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a single-use therapeutic substance delivery device that has a variable infusion rate control and a shrink-polymer therapeutic substance delivery device with an infusion control to provide single-use therapeutic substance delivery devices that are versatile, small, inexpensive, and have many other improvements.
A single-use therapeutic substance delivery device with infusion rate control is versatile, small, inexpensive, and has many other improvements. The therapeutic substance delivery device has a Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) flow restriction with a variable infusion rate. The MEMS flow restriction is fluidly coupled to a reservoir outlet to receive therapeutic substance dispensed from the single-use reservoir at the reservoir rate and restrict the therapeutic substance flow to a desired infusion rate. The single-use reservoir is configured for controlled collapsing to dispense therapeutic substance from the reservoir at a reservoir rate through a reservoir outlet. Many embodiments of the single-use therapeutic substance delivery device with infusion rate control and its methods of operation are possible.
A single-use shrink-polymer therapeutic substance delivery device is versatile, small, inexpensive, and has many other improvements. A flow restriction is fluidly coupled to the shrink polymer reservoir outlet to receive therapeutic substance dispensed from the reservoir at the reservoir rate and restrict the therapeutic substance flow to an infusion rate. The shrink polymer reservoir configured for controlled collapsing to dispense therapeutic substance from the reservoir at a reservoir rate through a reservoir outlet. Many embodiments of the single-use shrink-polymer therapeutic substance delivery device with infusion rate control and its methods of operation are possible.